The White House and House Republican leaders are on the same side on jobs, for once.

The White House backed the GOP leadership&rsquo;s latest jobs bill today, which Republicans carved out of President Barack Obama&rsquo;s own jobs package and paid for with a piece of his deficit reduction proposal.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the administration supports the House&rsquo;s bill, which would repeal a 3 percent tax withholding requirement for government contractors that was enacted under George W. Bush&rsquo;s administration.

&ldquo;We support working with them to get that done, and we believe we can,&rdquo; Carney said. &ldquo;The current pay-for in the House version is something we can support.&rdquo;

The White House had threatened to veto a similar measure that Senate Republicans offered last week, which would have been paid for with unspecified cuts in discretionary spending.

Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), warned against tying the repeal to items the GOP will not support.

&ldquo;Sen. McConnell is encouraged to see that the President will now support this provision of his own bill,&rdquo; Stewart wrote in an email. &ldquo;While we tried to pass it last week with a different bipartisan offset, Democrats blocked it. Now, with the President&rsquo;s support, the Senate should take it up next week, without adding poison pills, and send it to the President for his signature.&rdquo;

Senate Democrats have yet to figure out their next move. &ldquo;We are still working out a path forward,&rdquo; a Democratic leadership aide said.

Carney tempered the show of bipartisanship with criticism for Republicans, saying they have yet to demonstrate that they will back a significant jobs package.

&ldquo;What we still have not seen from the Republicans is a willingness to do the kinds of things that will substantially add to economic growth and job creation in the near term,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), pushed for more cooperation on the GOP&rsquo;s agenda.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve said for weeks that there is common ground on jobs, but getting more done will require the President to work with us and actually engage in the legislative process,&rdquo; he wrote in an email. &ldquo;He can start by encouraging the Senate to act on this bill and the more than 15 jobs bills that have passed the House, many with bipartisan support.&rdquo;

Earlier in the day, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson said Republicans are trying to play &ldquo;gotcha politics&rdquo; by bringing to the bill to the floor, saying that the president &ldquo;recommended it in the context of a bigger package,&rdquo; not as a stand-alone bill.

&ldquo;This is what the American people tire of,&rdquo; the Connecticut lawmaker said. &ldquo;People want to play gotcha politics instead of saying, &lsquo;Look, we&rsquo;ve got a big issue we&rsquo;ve got to solve here.&rsquo;&rdquo;

However, the president himself advocated breaking his larger jobs bill into separate bills after the Senate blocked the package this month. Besides a Senate vote on a GOP-offered repeal of the withholding mandate, the Senate voted on a proposal to provide $35 billion to keep teachers and first responders from being laid off. Both items failed on procedural votes.